Of Food and Deck Building
by UnderdogHero
Summary: Gao ditched, so now Baku has to find a way to fill his empty stomach. Good thing he has a friend like Kiri.


A/N: I SHOULD be at home with an ice pack glued to my face, but the swelling from having my wisdom tooth pulled out has gone down(or so my friends have said...) so I see no problem with going to McDonalds and uploading this. Just like my other one-shots I've uploaded today, this is a week late and wanted to be posted very badly.

Another idea I had help with from **Spring Zephyr**, although it's very late. Now to remember what else I had planned.

**.**

"Where _is_ that dork?"

Baku clicked his tongue, looking around the roof. He _knew_ Gao was in class today, the kid sat right behind him! Even if it was in the next row over, and he didn't have a good view of his seat, he could _hear_ him when he tried to whisper something to Kiri during class.

He sighed, walking up to the bench and slumping forward. He was _hungry_ and he finished his lunch in the middle of the lesson again, so he was waiting on Gao.

Who was apparently leaving him to starve today. Either that or Drum ate his lunch again and he was in the cafeteria, which he doubted. He'd have heard them arguing a mile away if that were the case.

He sighed, hearing his stomach rumble. He was tempted to go down the cafeteria himself, but remembered that he didn't have any money on him. Well, he had enough for one or two snacks at the vending machine in the courtyard, but those wouldn't last him halfway through lunch!

He was about to stand up to look for Kuguru - although he knew she'd scold him, he knew she'd share at least half her lunch with him - when someone stopped in front of him.

"Woah, you okay, Baku?"

He looked up, meeting familiar violet eyes watching him curiously.

Kiri was standing in front of him. Holding a lunch box.

Baku quickly shook his head, clearing his mind of those thoughts. While he was hungry, he couldn't just take_ Kiri's_ lunch. The kid was tiny, he probably wasn't eating enough in the first place!

But still...

He coudn't stop himself from staring at the light blue lunch box in the boy's hands, not knowing that shaking his head just made the boy more worried.

"Um, is something wrong?" Kiri asked him, snapping him out of his trance.

"Oh, uh, nothing! Just waiting for Gao, he sure is late, isn't he?" He said, giving the boy a crooked smile and trying to sound casual.

"Gao isn't coming." Kiri said with a tilt of his head. "He got caught running in the hallway when Drum tried to take his lunch, he's writing on the board and has to stay in the classroom as punishment for running and having his Buddy out."

... He should have guessed.

Defeated, he let out a heavy sigh.

"Alright. Thanks for telling me."

He let his head drop again.

"Um, are you hungry?" Kiri asked.

"A little." Baku said honestly. Well, more like a lot, but that was beside the point.

There was shuffling, and a few footsteps, before he felt the shorter boy sit down next to him. He heard the soudn of rustling cloth before his shoulder was tapped. He looked up to see Kiri holding out his lunch box.

"If you want, you can have the rest of mine." He said, smiling. Baku stared at the box, drooling slightly. He looked up at Kiri.

"Really?! I mean, aren't you going to eat?" Kiri laughed.

"I already ate some while I was waiting for Gao, before the teacher kicked me out." He said, scratching the back of his head. "He said Gao needs to learn to be more responsible and that I shouldn't coddle him."

Baku looked into the box again. Indeed, some of the rice had aready been eaten, and he supposed there might have been a few more hot dogs and tomatoes and some of the other stuff he wasn't paying attention to because _food_ and he didn't stop himself from giving Kiri a very, _very_ sincere "Thank You!" before digging in.

After he was fully sated, and Kiri re-wrapped his lunch box, a question popped up.

"By the way, if you were hungry, why didn't you buy lunch in the cafeteria?" Kiri asked. Baku thought for a moment.

"Well, as a deck builder I gotta have a lot of cards, so I spend most of my money buying packs or cards off other students." He said, pulling out two lollipops. He offered one to the other boy, feeling slightly bad about eating his lunch, which he accepted.

"I see. I'd wondered why you haven't pulled a Buddy Rare even though you have so many cards." He said, unwrapping the candy and popping it into his mouth. Baku laughed.

"Nah, Buddy Rares just happen. I could be like Noboru and have a monster follow me around before I give in, but I don't play, so maybe that's why." A thought suddenly came to him. "Hey, as thanks for being totally awesome and feeding me, how about I build you a deck?"

Kiri looked at him wide-eyed.

"Really? That'd be great!"

The only time he saw the deck used was a week later.

**.**

A/N: That... was as far as I got, because honestly after that it's pretty obvious. The "week later" would be during the cruise, when he fought Tetsuya. Seeing as Baku wasn't too surprised when Kiri used it, I thought I'd reference that and make it a head-canon that Baku built the deck for him. Not that Kiri can't build a perfectly stable deck on his own, I just like to poke at little details with a stick. They totally don't mind.


End file.
